Quick Links

Ethnicity and academic performance in medicine

14 March 2011

UK trained doctors and medical students from minority
ethnic groups tend to underperform academically compared with their
white counterparts, according to a new study by UCL academics.

This attainment gap has persisted for many years and
must be tackled to ensure a fair and just method of training and
assessing current and future doctors, say the authors in the British Medical Journal today. A third of all UK medical students and junior doctors are from minority ethnic groups.

The research team, including CHIME’s Dr Henry Potts,
analysed the results of 22 reports comparing the academic performance
of 23,742 medical students and UK trained doctors from different ethnic
groups. They found that candidates of non-white ethnicity
underperformed compared with white candidates.

First author Dr Katherine Woolf (Division of
Medical Education) said: “The effect identified is statistically
significant and widespread across different medical schools, different
types of exam, and in both undergraduate and postgraduate assessments.
Indeed, ethnic differences in attainment seem to be a consistent
feature of medical education in the UK have persisted for at least the
past three decades – so they cannot be dismissed as atypical or local
problems.”

Co-author Professor Chris McManus (formerly of CHIME
and now Division of Medical Education and Division of Psychology)
added: “While exam performance is by no means the only marker of good
performance as a doctor or medical student, the fact remains that
without passing finals, medical students cannot become doctors, and
without passing postgraduate exams, it is much harder for doctors to
progress in a medical career.

“It’s clear that more research is needed, and
preferably on a national basis, to get to the bottom of this issue. We
need more detailed information to track the problem as well as further
research into its causes. Without these actions, it will be a struggle
to ensure a fair and just method of training and assessing our future
and current doctors."